The present invention relates generally to the field of medical diagnostic systems, such as imaging systems. More particularly, the invention relates to a system and technique for quickly diagnosing a malfunction of a medical diagnostic system.
In either an industrial or commercial setting, a malfunctioning imaging machine can impair a business severely. Thus, it is essential that a malfunctioning imaging machine be repaired quickly and accurately. Usually, during a malfunction of an imaging machine such as an ultrasound, computed tomography (CT), or a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine, a field engineer is called in to diagnose and repair the machine. Typically, the field engineer looks at an incident record generated from the machine. The incident record contains information such as the type of machine, the modality of the machine, and any customer-related information. In addition, the incident record contains an error log of events that occurred during routine operation as well as during any malfunction situation and any artifact images generated from the machine. Using their accumulated experience at solving machine malfunctions, the field engineer looks through the error log and the artifact images and tries to find any symptoms that may point to the fault. Then the field engineer tries to correct the problem that may be causing the machine malfunction. If the error log contains only a small amount of information, and the generated artifact images are well known, then this process will work fairly well. However, if the error log contains a large amount of imprecise information and the cause of the artifact images is unknown, as is usually the case for large complex devices, then it will be very difficult for the field engineer to quickly diagnose a fault. Therefore, there is a need for a system and method that can quickly diagnose a machine malfunction from a complex error log and artifact images having an unknown cause associated therewith.
Solutions to the problems described above have not heretofore included significant remote capabilities. Thus, there is a need for a medical diagnostic system which provides for the advantages of remote services and addresses the problems discussed above. In particular, there is a need for a system and method that can quickly diagnose a machine malfunction via a network. Further, there is a need for system structures, such as, a database and a diagnostic unit to be located in a remote service facility. Even further, there is a need to reduce the amount of equipment located at the image-based machine while maintaining the ability to quickly diagnose and service machine malfunctions.
One embodiment of the invention relates to a system for performing image-based diagnosis of a machine and includes a database containing a plurality of historical images taken from a plurality of machines, a diagnostic unit configured to diagnose a new artifact image from the machine and to communicate historical and non-historical images or data associated with the system to a remote facility. The plurality of historical images include a plurality of ideal images generated from the plurality of machines using all possible machine settings and a plurality of artifact images generated from the plurality of machines, each of the artifact images having known faults associated therewith and a corresponding corrective action for repairing the faults. The diagnostic unit includes a diagnostic image processor and a diagnostic fault isolator. The diagnostic image processor includes means for finding an ideal image from the plurality of historical images that most closely matches the new artifact image, means for assigning an artifact category to the new artifact image based on the matched ideal image, and means for extracting an artifact feature from the new artifact image according to the assigned category. The diagnostic fault isolator includes means for generating a plurality of metrics for the extracted artifact feature and means for applying the plurality of metrics to identify an artifact image from the plurality of historical images that most closely matches the new artifact image and a corrective action for repairing the unknown fault. The network provides remote services from the remote facility.
Another embodiment of the invention relates a method for performing image-based diagnosis of a machine. The method includes obtaining a plurality of historical images taken from a plurality of machines via a network; receiving a new artifact image from a machine having an unknown fault via the network; finding an ideal image from the plurality of historical images that most closely matches the new artifact image; assigning an artifact category to the new artifact image based on the ideal image that most closely matches the new artifact image; generating a plurality of metrics for the artifact category assigned to the new artifact image; and using the plurality of metrics to identify an artifact image from the plurality of historical images that most closely matches the new artifact image and a corrective action for repairing the unknown fault. The plurality of historical images include a plurality of ideal images generated from the plurality of machines using all possible machine settings and a plurality of artifact images generated from the plurality of machines, each of the artifact images having known faults associated therewith and a corresponding corrective action for repairing the faults.
Other principle features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon review of the following drawings, the detailed description, and the appended claims.